Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Sunflo'er : " No Hell"








This New York blends almost as many takes on punk / hard-core as the Refused used to. The opener is angrier and more metallic. Botch is probably one of their influences due to the angular passages and jerking motion that keeps things frenetic until going into more melodic passages.  "Dogsbody" is an incomplete thought that feels more like an interlude than a actual song. If it was grindcore then perhaps something like that might have worked better. The chaos of "No Gate to Close" gets more organized half way into it. The guitar tone on this album is very organic and not going to far with jagged feed back offering some clarity to the riffs. The title track has a decent riff going into and might have been a good song if it had been given more than a minute to develop.

A minute and a half seems like a better compromise on "Plain Ol Bastards" It starts off with a brief blasting before going into a more atmospheric angular verse that trades off with the more pummeling  riff. It's clear the drummer is the superstar of this band. At six minutes the more brooding post- hardcore of " Days Gone Has a Sung" vocal filled with rasp and emotion not unlike Planes Mistaken For Stars. The guitar work here is more nuanced. While it's tense the build up is sparse and the one and a half song seems longer. "Inverted Cross Tattoo" works of a more refined palm muted tension. The drummer once again lays down an intricate groove. The vocals are half shouted half sung. This creates an almost Fugazi feel before becoming more metallic.

"San Kalpa" starts off with more rock n roll sounding guitar before the drums come in a give it more drive. The vocals try singing with robust punk throatiness. The a weird mathy riff comes in a dances around things.This works fairly well and doesn't seem awkward. There is a more screamo undercurrent.  There is a darker more lumbering stomp to the scream of "Dead Letters Sent", this could be any of the Converge influenced hard core bands out today and while heavy it doesn't have as much of their personality in it. "Good Old Way" sums up the album by setting a dense blast against the contrast of more delicate guitar. I'll round this album up to an 8.5 , because the attention to detail they give things is more than most punk and hardcore bands do these days. I looked forward to hearing more from this band


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